Sitting at 3-1 during their bye week, the Pittsburgh Steelers finally have Colin Cowherd’s respect. After giving the Steelers credit for their win in Dublin last Sunday, Cowherd apologized to QB Aaron Rodgers, whom he was quite critical of throughout the offseason and early this season, today on The Herd on FS1.
“I was wrong to call you a snarky, prickly, weird uncle. My bad bro. You are a baller, not a bailer, after all. You’ve been magnetic, energizing and resilient. The rare eccentric quarterback who is pointing Steel City out of the darkness and into the light,” Cowherd said.
Rodgers has done his job pretty well as Pittsburgh’s quarterback. While it hasn’t always been pretty, Rodgers was instrumental in the team’s Week 1 win and played well enough in Week 3, throwing the game-winning touchdown pass on a beautiful ball to Calvin Austin III. He was good again in the Steelers’ Week 4 win over the Minnesota Vikings.
Cowherd isn’t the only one who had doubts about the 41-year-old Rodgers this season, but so far, he’s proven his doubters mostly wrong. He is ranked as a top-10 quarterback in the league through four games by CBS Sports, and the key for Rodgers is going to be to keep playing at this level throughout the season.
If he struggles, Cowherd and the rest of the talking heads will turn on him again. Russell Wilson and Justin Fields received a lot of praise during Pittsburgh’s fast start last season, and by the end of the season, it was (rightfully) a different story. But Rodgers has done enough so far that it’s fair for Cowherd to issue an apology. Even if it’s joking in nature, Cowherd admitted he was wrong about the Steelers and Rodgers. For as outlandish as some of his takes are, he does own them when he’s wrong. That is more than most media personalities can say.
The Steelers will need Rodgers to keep up the level of play that keeps Cowherd eating his words if they want to contend. They had success with their run-heavy game plan in Week 4, and Rodgers made some nice throws when he had to. He’s getting the ball out quickly and running the offense the way a veteran should.
If the Steelers keep winning, more and more praise will come his way.
